532. California's Tenth Congressional District - and John Yarmuth's Town Hall Announcement

I've been on the phone making calls to a bunch of people with area codes starting with 925 and 510. They are undecided voters in the Tenth Congressional District of California, an area to the north and east of San Francisco, covering several counties in the low hills out beyond Oakland and stretching over to the suburbs of Sacramento. I'm supporting a young man named Anthony Woods. Here are some talking points from the phone call sheet:

FROM OUR COMMUNITY: Anthony Woods was born and raised in Fairfield---the son of a single mom who worked as a housekeeper. Anthony Woods knows our community and the challenges we’re facing, while his opponents are Sacramento politicians who are squabbling over a job promotion while our state is on the verge of bankruptcy.

• A FIGHTER FOR UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE: Anthony Woods understands our broken healthcare system first hand, because he’s lived the uncertainty of being without health insurance for most of his life. Anthony Woods won’t just vote for Universal Healthcare--he’ll lead the fight for a plan that covers everyone and reduces costs by including a public option in Congress.

• A 21st CENTURY ECONOMY NEEDS A 21ST CENTURY WORKFORCE: Like a growing number of Americans, Anthony Woods grew up without the resources to attend college. He earned a Congressional Appointment to West Point, and through his service to our country, went on to earn his Master’s Degree from Harvard. Anthony understands that to keep America strong and restore our sagging economy, we need to invest in a 21st century workforce. That’s why he’s proposed a National College affordability program, which rewards each year of national service with a year of higher education.

• A LEADER WHO KNOWS THE MILITARY AND A CHAMPION FOR VETERANS: Anthony Woods is the only candidate in this race who knows our military. Woods served two tours in Iraq, earned the Bronze Star for his actions in combat, and brought every soldier under his command home alive. He will fight for the real benchmarks and timelines we need to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the resources we need to ensure our veterans get the care they have earned and deserve when they come home.

• ON EQUALITY, WOODS STANDS ON CONVICTION, NOT POLITICAL CONVENIENCE: Woods’ military career was cut short when he stepped forward to challenge the failed “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy—a policy that is weakening our military, and endangering our security at a cost of hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. Anthony Woods will fight for the equality of all Americans, because he has lived this battle first hand.

*****

It is the last one which got my attention. Mr. Woods, who I think is 28 or 29, won a congressional appointment/scholarship to West Point where he excelled. He then went to Harvard for a Master's Degree, where he likewise excelled. He then entered the service of the United States, again excelling at everything he did, making two tours of duty in Iraq and earning the Bronze Star.

But, he is gay. And the United States Army discharged him. And, that simply is wrong. Here is a young man contributing to the defense of our nation and its principles, serving two tours of duty in Iraq, only to be "let go."

Tomorrow his name appears on the ballot in the Special Election called by the Governor of California to fill the seat which was vacated by former Congresswoman Elaine Tauscher, who has gone to work for the president. I'm supporting Mr. Woods, even from two thousand miles away here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. Very few members of the Congress have his academic credentials. Even fewer have his military credentials. The Congress needs someone like Mr. Woods and I am hopeful for a win tomorrow in California's Tenth Congressional District.

*****

Much closer to home, Congressman John Yarmuth's office put out its press release for their Town Hall meeting on Wednesday. It is copied below.

Congressman John Yarmuth

Representing Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District
PRESS RELEASE


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 31, 2009 MEDIA CONTACT

Trey Pollard 502.582.5129
Advisory: Yarmuth to Hold Health Care Town Hall Meeting this Wednesday


(Louisville, KY) On Wednesday, Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) will host a traditional town hall meeting on health care reform for constituents of Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District.

The event will be moderated by radio talk show host Francene Cucinello, of 84 WHAS’ “The Francene Show” and will take place at Central High School, 1130 West Chestnut Street. Priority will be given to Louisville residents who will be admitted on a first-come, first-served basis. This will be followed by individuals who are not residents of the 3rd Congressional District (subject to room capacity).

Congressman Yarmuth’s district work period schedule has been focused on meetings with doctors, nurses, hospital administrators and other health care providers, small business owners and representatives from large corporations, health insurance representatives, individual consumers and a range of other groups interested in the health care reform. In addition, over 15,000 Louisvillians participated in the Congressman’s three tele-town hall meetings.

Members of the media interested in attending to town hall must RSVP to Congressman Yarmuth’s office by 6pm on Tuesday, September 1. To RSVP, please include “RSVP” in the subject line of an email to trey.pollard@mail.house.gov and list your name and media outlet.

Who: Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3)

84 WHAS’ Francene

Constituents of the 3rd Congressional District

When: 6:30pm, September 2, 2009

Doors open at 5pm



Where: Central High School, 1130 West Chestnut Street



United States House of Representatives
435 Cannon House Office Building • Washington, DC 20515
202.225-5401 phone • 202.225.5776 fax

531. Two more unrelated thoughts: Italics and the Weather

Somehow, I've been invaded by the Italics, not to be confused with any Italians who may have also visited at one time or another. A great deal of my blog is now showing up in italics. I'm not sure why. Since I'm not sure how it got that way, I'm not quite sure how to make it go away. I've tried to correct it, but to no avail. Maybe it will correct itself. It has been my experience that most things in life, whether small or large, tend to eventually correct themselves - or go away.

Hopefully the weather will not correct itself. The end of August is supposed to be like the rest of August, which is why President Bush did in August 2001 what the French famously do each year, which is to take the month off. But this August has been a most enjoyable experience, like being in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, a place I visited more than a few times as a teenager. This morning the temperature was 53 degrees when I woke up. The high is forecast to be 77. I can live that with for rest of the month, which is to say today. So long, August 2009, it has been a pleasure.

Why? Where? What? and Who? Four Unrelated Items

Why?

My friend Tim Havrilek has an entry on his blog, a blog which covers politics in west Kentucky. The Underground Rooster has been mentioned before here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. Tim would be considered a conservative Democrat here in Louisville and I am confident he calls himself one. But he is also a passionate and compassionate Democrat and his passion and compassion are more than just political catchwords. We have known of each other for over a generation.

(The old Trigg County Courthouse is shown at left. I believe it has been torn down). His most recent entry has a "To Kill A Mockingbird" air to it. It concerns the local trial of a man accused and convicted of Disturbing the Peace in Trigg County, Kentucky. If you are not familiar with Trigg County, it lays upon the Tennessee state line in near-far western Kentucky. Those of you who make the trek to Fancy Farm each August end up about fifty miles west of the county, which like the community of Fancy Farm is bisected by KY80. Fully one-third of the county is part of the Kentucky and Tennesee's famous Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. Trigg is a beautiful county with shores of both Kentucky and Barkley lakes. The population is about 13,000 and the county seat is Cadiz.

The beauty of Trigg County ends there as far the current entry of the Underground Rooster is concerned. The story is about a Mr. Latham, use of the word bullshit and the possible use of an invective epithet as a result of Mr. Latham wearing an Obama t-shirt in a recent parade. I invite you to go read the story and form your own opinion. www.underground.blogspot.com. As I stated in the comments section of the entry, it is situations like this which cause people like me to join the ACLU. After reading the entry one question which will come to mind is Why?

*****

Where?

I spent part of the afternoon today getting new brakes put on my little car, a facsimile of which is shown at left. In the near future, other work due to be done is an oil-change and at least two new tires. Earlier this year I drove the car to Washington DC and I am planning to make that trip again in early October. This time I will drive the reverse route of that taken by me and my two fellow travellers when the occasion then was the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States of America. This next trip will be a much less structured, which hopefully means a little more relaxed. While I had the time of my life in the cold frozen tundra of January in Washington and would do it all again for President Obama, this trip has no specific agenda other than to see a few friends and, naturally, to do a little politicking. Later in the year, between Christmas and New Year's, it is my hope to take my mother to see her cousins in Chattanooga; and continue from there south with my friend to Homestead, Florida, where he can visit his daugther's maternal grandmother; and for me to go alone from there even further south to Key West and Duval Street for some end of 2009/beginning of 2010 fun.

*****

What?

What ever happened to Global Warming? No, I'm not falling off the liberal bandwagon and abandoning belief in the scientific fact of global warming. But one has to question the legimitacy of such an idea here in Louisville where Julys and Augusts are typically unbearable, with temperatures and humidity levels both usually in the 90s for way-too-many days. July was the most agreeable July we've ever had in Louisville, and other than a flood on August 4th, this month has been pleasurable as well. What will September and October bring? Sooner or later we have to have a few days of Summer. My 49th birthday in a few weeks will officially kick off Autumn, so there isn't much time left.

*****

Who?

While watching Senator Kennedy's funeral, did anyone other than me see the possible third-generation family member to whom a torch - The Torch - might someday be passed? Although he is yet a teenager, John Bouvier Kennedy "Jack" Schlossberg, the son of presidential-daughter Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg, could be in line sooner or later. He was seen in the funeral as one of the readers during the Prayers of the People part of the Mass. Assuming he is 16 today, he would be eligible for the presidency in 2028 and if not then in 2032. I'll be 67 in the former and 71 in the latter. There's nothing wrong with planning ahead.

From left to right, that's Rose, Caroline, Tatiana, and Jack Schlossberg at last year's Democratic National Convention in Denver.

529. Somber Occasion

Today is one of those days that, admittedly, I need a TV. The last time was last summer for the political conventions and the Olympics, and before that the deaths of presidents Ford and Reagan. Today I am here watching, with absolute fascination, the funeral of the late United States Senator Edward Moore Kennedy.

The family has not arrived and when they do that entire right side of the church will fill up with scores, probably hundreds of Kennedy family members. Kennedy's other family, his political one in Washington, is present in force. And this is where my fascination comes in.

Sitting in the front pew is President Obama. And for the last several minutes he and former president Bill Clinton have been engaged in some conversation, longer than just a hello - several minutes. Also there are former presidents George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter, and all their wives. And it is a testament to our government that they are all interacting, I'm sure catching up not only on their experiences with the former senator, but also their experiences with each other.

Earlier there was a shot of President Clinton with his arm around his vice president Al Gore. I was thinking back to the distance Gore put between his campaign for president and Clinton in 1999 and 2000. But that's politics. And this isn't really government - this is statesmanship - and I apologize for that sexist term; it is one of the few we PC people haven't found an equivalent for.

The family - America's Royalty - is now preceding into the Basilica of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, faces we've all seen all our lives, watching these nieces and nephews grow up into citizens of the world, many in politics, some in private civic matters, and a hand full in trouble now and then.

The moderators are talking about which of the Kennedy offspring might want to seek this seat, should that opportunity arise. I am of an age to know that the torch was to have been passed to someone my age; someone who like so many Kennedy family members had his life cut short, although it was arguably and inadvertently by his own actions. How much different would life had been if JFK, Jr. - John-John - was still with us, here to have been a candidate for president in 2000? President Kennedy's son was two months younger than me and he was always someone I knew would one day give my generation its own version of Camelot. He was to have been the first candidate for president I voted for who was younger than me. But that wasn't to be and I would not have that vote to cast until eight years later.

I'm too young to remember President Kennedy. In papers I wrote in college, I often took the stance that he was more style than substance - that in his heart he knew what should have been done, but that the country was not ready for the type of changes that were needed. I barely remember Bobby Kennedy; I do remember his death and funeral. In my later studies I learned about his campaign for president and, if you look through some blog entries last year, I offered on several occcasions that I believed candidate Obama should have taken a US23 poverty tour through the edges of Appalachia in Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. But he didn't. But I do remember Senator Ted Kennedy. I mentioned a few days ago I supported him in the 1980 primaries, the first in which I was old enough to vote for president. And I will miss him.

The hearse has arrived carrying his body and the Mass is about to begin, so I will quit here.

God Bless You, Mr. Kennedy. Rest In Peace. +

528. Yarmuth at the Metro

The Metro Democratic Club played host to Congressman John Yarmuth last night in a meeting at the American Legion Highland Post on Bardstown Road. The regular membership crowd was swelled to 241 people as we were joined by the Jefferson County Democratic Party Executive Committee, about 30 members of organized Labor, and maybe 20 dissidents whose presence was noted by not felt. There were no problems whatsoever.

The congressman was introduced by State Senator Perry Clark, who played an important role in Yarmuth's first election in 2006. Bruce Maples moderated the Q&A period, throwing Yarmuth everything from softballs to curveballs and the congressman answered each one thoroughly. He was on the hot-spot for just over an hour. It was an impressive bit of work and I called the congressman afterward and let him know.

Although the Metro Club's meetings are open to anyone to attend, this was at core a Democratic Club meeting. Congressman Yarmuth began with a memorial salute to the late Senator Edward Kennedy, who is to be laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery on Saturday. And there were congratulations announced on the election of Robin Webb as the newest Democratic state senator in Frankfort, in a seat previously held by a Republican. But for the most part of an hour and a quarter, this was America in its "little-d" democratic best, with a congressman at the front of 241 people, explaining just what the Congress has been doing for the last eight months. And Congressman Yarmuth earned his keep.

The Metro Democratic Club's next meeting is two weeks away on September 9. The guest speaker will be Kyle Cox, the Executive Director of the Kentucky Democratic Party. Doors open at 6 with the program commencing at 6:30. Also, between now and then, Congressman Yarmuth will be conducting his own open-to-the-public and in-person Town Hall meeting, the only member of the eight-person Kentucky Congressional Delegation in either party to do so. His meeting will be September 2, 2009 at Central High School. You can get more details on Yarmuth's Town Hall by calling his Louisville office at 502-582-5129.

[Edited at 8:05 pm, 08/27/2009]

Kennedy

I received a call from my friend Tim Havrilek in west Kentucky at 1:59 am informing me of the death of United States Senator Edward Moore Kennedy. We had a brief talk about the late senator, one of the great leaders and people of my world. He had been senator since I was just over one year of age.

I suppose I could have gotten up and blogged at the time about the loss but I didn't. I stayed in bed realizing there was very little I could say that someone else wouldn't. I did not know the senator although I met him twice in the 1980s, once here in Louisville at a Kentucky Democratic Party fundraiser at the old Timothy's Restaurant on E. Broadway, and another time at a National Young Democrats event, either in Washington or Philadelphia. I supported him in the 1980 Presidential Primary, my first-ever presidential election. I still have a t-shirt from that campaign, silver lettering on a black shirt which reads "America doesn't need more Peanut Butter," a reference to his peanut-growing opponent, then-President Jimmy Carter.

Still, early this morning there is so much to say and much will be. I am at a loss to write further.

Rest In Peace, Senator Kennedy. You did good and great work for many, many people. May your soul and the souls of all those who have departed find eternal peace. +

526. Thank Goodness for Carter County - and Lewis too. Lewis, really?

I don't claim to know much about Carter County. I've been there a few times. The county seat is Grayson and the main north-south street is KY1/KY7, and KY9 and KY2 aren't too far away to the north, just beyond the intersection with I64. And, Grayson is bigger than you think it is. And there is some connection between the person for whom the city of Grayson is named and that for whom the county of Carter is named. I think both are for William Grayson Carter. Further there is a connection also to the person for whom the county of Grayson is named, William Grayson, who is William Grayson Carter's grandfather. That's honestly the extent of my fuzzy knowledge of Carter County.

What I do know is that Carter County resident Robin Webb owes a great deal of her election today to the good folks of her home county. She won the county 3105 to 1955, an 1150 vote margin. She won her entire district by only 282 votes. She also carried Robertson County, Kentucky's smallest county both in size and voters, where she won 168 to 142. The 18th Senate District has six counties. She lost the other four; sizably in Greenup County, the home of her Republican opponent.

Bracken, Carter, Greenup, Mason, and Robertson all boast Democratic registration of from nearly 2/1 in Carter to almost 6/1 in Robertson. Nonetheless, she lost three of those five. In the other county in the 18th, Lewis, with the courthouse at Vanceburg, there are 2472 registered Democrats and 6994 registered Republicans. But did Lewis have a blowout victory for the GOP candidate? No, there the loss for Robin was 1072 to 1184. That's pretty respectable for a county with such lobsided registration.

So, here's to the voters of Carter County and Lewis too. Today they elected a new Democratic State Senator in the 18th District, my friend Robin Webb. And while Robin's win doesn't tilt the scales entirely to a friendlier Senate, it does tend to lead us a little more down our path that their's.

Robin Webb (D) - 8684
Dr. Jack Ditty (R) - 8402
Guy Gibbons (I) - 952

The turnout was 23.6%.

The truth is we have our work cut out for us next November when this seat is back on the ballot.

525. A Little Help From My Friends

I want to acknowledge the help I received yesterday staffing the Kentucky Democratic Party booth at the State Fair. I always take a day then ask around for volunteers. Yesterday I was there was 9 to 6, but with the help of my friends, we staffed it from 9 to 9.

I began the morning with Michael Meeks, with whom I serve on the KDP State Central Committee, and Bud Andrews, who is an employee of the State Party. Michael is a lobbyist and lives in the Buechel area. Then came Anne Lindauer, a retired school teacher and librarian, and a resident of the Highlands. Next were two vacationing employees of Jefferson County Attorney Mike O'Connell's office - Allison Amon of Fern Creek and Allison Kern, who lives in the Belmar area right across from the Fairgrounds. Allison Amon also serves on the KDP committee and is the Jefferson County Democratic Party Vice Chair. Akeel Zaheer, a resident of the Strathmore area, was there for most of the afternoon, as was Ben Basil, now a 2nd year law student at U of L. I met Ben in the 2006 Yarmuth campaign. Among other things, he was one of the best canvass organizers I've ever seen. Also working in the afternoon was Deborah Lawther, who serves as the 48th LD Vicec Chair. She tried to sell me some Shaklee products to while away the hours, but I didn't bite - just yet. Jim Stammermann, who lives in the Hikes Point area came along in the evening, as did Matt Erwin, a campaign organizer I met last year. I do not know where Matt and his girlfriend reside. Lindsay Dickinson, now an MD, along with her mother Sandra, arrived for the evening, at which point I had to leave. I was also expecting later in the evening some time from Queenie Averette, from Louisville's West End and also a member of the State Party, as well as a contingent from the Bullitt County Democratic Party led by Debbie Stinson. Thanks again to all of you.

I would say something about the booth itself, or the lack of the booth itself, but I'm trying to figure out a way to do so without being critical and my wordsmithing skills haven't yet found those words. Hopefully by next year we will have located the big booth we own and go back to a more workable booth.

In a different part of the state, today is Election Day for my friend Robin Webb. As I did yesterday, she is today looking for a little help from her friends in the 18th Senate District, a six-county collection of voters in northeastern Kentucky. Good luck to her and the voters of her district.

[Edited at 8:04 pm, 08/27/2009]

524. Tri-State Adventure

Admittedly, about 92% of the adventure was in one state, the good ol' Commonwealth of Kentucky.

My friend Montero and I took off to the east today to support the candidacy of my friend Robin Webb as she seeks the office of 18th District State Senator in northeastern Kentucky.

Heading east on I64, we journeyed through exurban Shelby County, past the Capital City and County along the banks of the Kentucky River, up the hills to the lush Bluegrass of central Kentucky, and up a little more into the western foothills of the eastern Kentucky mountains, through the velvetty green fields of Bath County (which always remind me of Ireland), and into the mountains of Rowan, Carter, and Greenup counties. We ventured off I64 and onto KY67 which took us over to US23 in Greenup County. Our first destination was a rally held at the Raceland/Worthington High School Auditorium in southern Greenup County on the old US23, called Greenup Avenue at that point.

Although six governor were supposed to have appeared, only four actually did. Kentucky governors Julian Carroll ('74-'79), John Young Brown ('79-'83), Brereton Jones ('91-'95), and Paul Patton ('95-'03) sat to the right side of the stage and each gave a speech, and amazingly they weren't all the same speech. Governor Brown touted the accomplishments of his administration, as well as those of his father and son, both of whom have served in elective office. [An aside, I remember old Mr. Brown from his race for Congress in the 1980s - I think he ran 10th. And I signed the filing papers for John the III in his race for Secretary of State in 1995]. Governor Jones was next who gave a speech appropriate for a horseman supporting a horsewoman in her bid for office. This race has a lot to do with passage of slots at racetracks around the Commonwealth, although none of those tracks are in the 18th Senate District. Governor Carroll, who now serves in the Senate, got up and said he was going to do something different, then proceeded to do what he usually does - he preached. He called it testifying. He may as well have been in a pulpit. But, he closed his sermonette by saying that the pulpit was no place for politics. For a conservative Democrat, he gave a very liberal sounding speech on the separation of church and state. Knowing that other than Lisa Tanner, I was probably the most liberal guy in the room, I was concerned on what he might have to say. As it turned out, I was about ready to yell, "Give 'em Hell Julian" as I wholly approved of his overtly religious and political message. Closing the quartet was Governor Paul Patton, the only one who is a native of the District, being originally from adjoining Lawrence County. Patton talked about the historic opportunity the voters in the 18th District have and one they should take very seriously on Tuesday the 25th which is Election Day.

The candidate herself then appeared and gave a lengthy and sometimes emotional speech giving encouragement to those in the room that now was the time to help change the State Senate and by doing so changing the Commonwealth. Governor Carroll then came back to mic to give us the charge of working the next four days to ensure a victory in the race. Onward Christians Soldiers, Marching As To War indeed.

Montero and I then travelled a few miles north (downriver) to Robin's HQ in downtown Greenup city, a sleepy little courthouse town on the banks of the O-Hi-O. We were given a precinct to walk several miles further north in the community of South Shore, which also lay along the O-Hi-O. South Shore is a gritty little burg of maybe 900 souls, most of whom vote Republican on federal races and Democrat on local ones - like so many other Kentuckians. The polling place for the Fullerton #1 precinct we were walking is the Youth Center of the First Church of God on Main Street. And the truth is, the polling place is within walking distance of most of the 900 people who make up the little town. We had split the precinct up with two other groups and knocking it out didn't take much. Hopefully, more than a handful of these folks will go vote on Tuesday.

Special Elections are notorious for low turnouts. As such, they are very unpredictable - they can go either way. Thus the importance of touching every voter possible, and the more times the better as the election approaches. My young friend Chad Aull (who will likely be a statewide candidate himself someday and one I will support) is running the campaign from Grayson in Carter County. Lisa Tanner, from here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606 is up there coordinating the GOTV effort. Their work should be success.

After walking our assigned precinct, we reverted to tourists, travelling back down (south) on US23 and crossing over the O-Hi-O into the state of O-Hi-O at the city of Ironton, Ohio. Ironton is an old long drawn-out affair of a rust-belt town on the riverbank which appears to have had somewhat better days many days ago - maybe. On the Ohio side of the river, we followed US52 East (actually south) out of Ohio, back across the Ohio, and into Huntington, West Virginia, just to say we did. Now headed west on US60 in W. Huntington, we came into the town of Ceredo, where US60 is called "C" Street, and from there into Kenova - Ken-O-Va , get it - where US60 runs along Oak Street. Eventually we crossed out of West Virginia, over the Big Sandy River, and into Catlettsburg, Kentucky at 35th and Louisa streets. A short drive south on Louisa returned us to I64, which in turn returned us to Louisville.

Good luck to Robin on her election on the 25th. Polls are open from 6am to 6pm.

Vote early; vote often.

523. Political Roadtrip

Making a small journey across to the northeastern side of Kentucky, a side I'm not familiar with. In checking my list, the last time I was in Greenup County (as well as Elliott County) was the summer of 1987, campaigning for then-gubernatiorial candidate Wallace Wilkinson. We won.

Today me and a friend are headed to Raceland High School in Greenup County for a rally, then to Carter County to walk a precinct. All this is for Robin Webb, a candidate for the 18th District Senate seat which will be decided in a Special Election on Tuesday. Robin and I are the same age and we've known each other for 3/5ths of our respective lives. A long time ago, when we were both young Democrats, we were members of the Kentucky Young Democrats. Now we're just young at heart Democrats.

She is currently a member of Kentucky's House of Representatives and is seeking to move to the so-called Upper House which meets at the opposite end of the capital in Frankfort. We need her and a few other Democrats in that chamber, presently lorded over and controlled by Republican Senator David Williams, known not so affectionately as the Bully from Burkesville.

Just as the last entry talked about change in the country, we also need change in our Commonwealth - on so many levels. One place to start is the General Assembly. One day to start is Tuesday.

You can visit Robin's webpage at www.robinwebbforsenate.com.

522. Barry, We Won.

I'm a little upset with my president. And, let's be honest, I like my president a lot. But I don't like this backpeddling and reconciliation over healthcare. I voted for Obama in 2008 for the same reason I voted for John Yarmuth in 2006 - I voted for Change. One of the things that needs changing, perhaps the greatest one once we put the Civil War behind us, is fixing healthcare. I support single payer, I support HR676. I expect my congressman and my president to do the same. After all, we control the Senate, we control the House, and a 48 year old skinny black man with a funny name lives with his wife and children at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW as the CEO of our Republic.

Barry, we won. Press on.

521. Hawpe's Departure

David Hawpe is one of my favorite writers. Yesterday the Courier-Journal published one last piece of wisdom from one of the last pieces of wisdomhood the place yet holds. In it he writes of coming to the C-J building as a kid to be on the old Hayloft Hoedown, a locally produced show from a bygone era of local television. I can relate. I went to the same building (or maybe to the new WHAS building on Chestnut Street) as a kid celebrating my birthday with Randy and Cactus on T-Bar-V Ranchtime nearly a generation later in the waning days of the related program.

David is an unabashed liberal with enough true grit from places like Powell Avenue in Louisville to working the old Hazard bureau of the Courier-Journal, back in the "Once Great" days of a paper that is no more. Hawpe's charges and challenges have been insightful, engaging, and last but certainly not least, entertaining. He is one of the last vestiges of the heralded paper formerly owned by three different generations of the Bingham family, Louisville's closest candidate as a royal family.

I do not personally know Mr. Hawpe, although we have met on several occasions. We've also exchanged emails from time-to-time, as I know he has done with my father more than once. My emails were generally supportive; those of my father's certainly were not. In 2002 Hawpe sat across the large interview table from me, along with three others in the editorial department and four other candidates, when I ran for Metro Council. When the discussion came to how each of us felt about Merger, Mr. Hawpe allowed that they already knew where I stood and had copies of my several letters in opposition to that move, including one called "Assimilation, Not Merger." Someday I will reprint it here; it had a certain prescience which can be appreciated now these seven years later. But, I digress.

A few weeks ago when his retirement was leaked out, I sent him a congratulatory note. I wish him well. Our city, state, and region has been well served by him as it once was well served by his former employer.

Thanks, Mr. Hawpe. Happy Trails, my friend.

520. Name Badges

I've never been much for name badges. For whatever reason, they've always made me a little uncomfortable. They are a sort of advertising and, despite my political involvement, advertising is not something I like at all. And I find them ostentatious if nothing else, as if to say "lookee here, see who I am." That's just not something I like to do. As many of you know, at most any given event, I can be found, whether it be a political assembly, a classroom, restaurant, or church, in the back of the room - and fairly close to an escape route - a door.

From such a vantage point, all the intracacies of the social networking of a gathering can be viewed and judged - or not, depending on one's frame of mind. If I want to know who someone is, I have two choices. Ask around or ask the person themself. That is one place name badges make for awkwardness. Let us suppose you are in a room and there is a person of interest to you. It feels kind of odd walking up to them, peering at their name badge, then saying, "oh, so you are Joe So-and-So!" Well, of course they are, that's what their badge says. It just seems silly to me.

Over the years, there have been many occasions where I've been requested to don a name badge, but quite a bit fewer where I've actually done so. Particularly at political events - fundraisers for certain - everyone is asked to put a little badge on, usually trimmed in red or blue, telling everyone who you are. Sometimes you get one color or another to distinguish you as a member of one group from someone with another color who, ergo, belongs to a different group. Only the organizers know that the red-badged people must be talked to while the blue-badged people may be as they are optional - or vice versa.

After avoiding wearing any badges for seven years (when I last ran for public office), this year I've found myself with three. One of those identifies me as Treasurer of the Metro Democratic Club. They [those amazing people who are in every group] want us to wear the badges during the meeting so people will know who we are. Anyone who has attended a Metro Democratic Club meeting for last several years can easily pick me out. I'm the guy off to the side with the checkbook, the receipt book, and the membership forms. It would appear that I am the treasurer, but I should wear my badge to put aside all doubt. I must remember to wear it to our next meeting on August 26th.

Upon my arrival in January as a staff member at the Louisville Metro Council, something I addressed in an entry about that time, to serve as a Legislative Aide to Councilman Brent Ackerson, Democrat of the 26th District, I was presented with a badge telling me and whoever else wished to read it that, indeed, I was the Legislative Aide to Councilman Brent Ackerson. Councilman Ackerson, Brent the Democrat as opposed to Councilman Ackerson, Jon the Republican, has requested that I wear it at events out in the district, a not-too-unreasonable request given that I am fairly new to that area of town. So it is that I can be seen from time-to-time with the Metro Council badge. Incidentally, the Metro Council badge looks remarkably like the Metro Democratic Club badge, the former including my middle initial, the latter without it. Both are gold badges with black lettering and each includes in some form a Fleur De Lis, the official symbol and flower of our government here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606.

Recently, as in a few days ago, I received a badge in the mail from the Kentucky Democratic Party. This one can be used to identify me as a State-At-Large member of the Kentucky Democratic Party State Central Executive Committee, a position I hold by virtue of a series of events last summer which began with my alleged election as a 3rd District Committeeman. This badge I will definitely wear at the next State Central Committee meeting in the hopes that the new chair of the Party, Chairman Moore, will have something more than "hello" to say to me. Certainly his predecessor, Chairwoman Moore, had a lot to say to me. There are reasons I want the Chair to know who I am when I am speaking. Some of you may recall that much of my interest in serving on the Committee was to address some weaknesses in the state Party By-Laws, weaknesses I sought (unsuccessfully) to change in my previous term, and for which I ran again so as to address them again. Maybe if the Chair knows it is me speaking, he will hear me out. Or then again, maybe I'll just leave the badge at home and act like I'm somebody else. I might have a better chance that way.

Thanks for reading. If I were to be wearing a badge right now, it would read "Jeff Noble, Blogger, Louisville, Kentucky."

519. Our Place In The Sun

My last entry mentioned two very different places within our Republic, New York City and Alaska. Often when I mention places like that, visitors will show up from those locales to see what I was saying about their fair city, state, or nation. From time to time, I check my list of visitors to see who they are, where they are, and what they are reading here along the Left Bank of the Ohio River near Milepost 606. I've reported on these before, but it has been a long time since doing so.

To my surprise, no one from either place stopped by for a look-see. Although my readership is very small compared to some other local blogs, I can usually count on such a visit. What I did find were the cities, towns, and villages of some recent visitors, with a few new places I've never noticed before.

Among the last 100 visitors came folks from Sycamore, FL; Calvert City, KY; Howell, NJ; and Lees Summit, MO. Also, some place called Tunnelton, WV which lists as the service provider the West Virginia Educational Network and Seattle, WA, listing showing the provider as the University of Washington. I visited their webpage which is, for the time being, boasting that researchers from that school have determined that comets hitting the earth are very likely not the cause of our planet's previous mass extinctions. Yet another theory I was taught in school debunked. What's next - that Utica, Kentucky isn't the center of social activity as I learned from a dormmate my freshman year of college? But, I digress.


I had visitors from five foreign countries although one of those entries comes with an asterisk. Whenever Waterloo, Ontario shows up in my list, it is invariably a particular friend of mine in Washington, DC checking a blackberry. Whether this visit was that person or not I do not know. But I have tested that hypothesis and proven it to be true. Other foreigners have arrived from Herzberg, GERMANY; Dubai, UAR; Theux Liege, BELGIUM (twice); and Casablanca, MOROCCO. My Casablanca reader linked to my comments on the passing of Michael Jackson. Whoever it was, "here's looking at you, kid!"

Finally, back here at home, a comment on our place it the sun, literally. If you went outside today, you felt it - that is the sun. For the first time in forty-four days, Louisville's temperature made it into the 90s, something it didn't do for entire month of July, the first July on record that went 90-less. Earlier today the high reached 91, four degrees above the average high temperature of 87. The low this morning was 73, also four degrees higher than normal. The record high for this date was two years ago when the temperature was 102. The record low was 53 in 1989.

Let's hope this upcoming week is less eventful, at least weatherwise, than the previous one.

518. Tough or Nuts?

The picture above is of Jack Conway, my friend and Kentucky's attorney general. It was taken with the Columbia University College Democrats in New York City. In the picture he seems like a normal-enough guy. I've hesitated to join in the chorus of people who've questioned Jack's self-identifying language at last week's Fancy Farm Picnic in Graves County. I've known Jack since we were introduced by Denis Fleming one morning at Lynn's Paradise Cafe on Barret Avenue back in 1996. I've always supported Jack in his campaigns and this year is no different. And over the years, I've called him a few names here and there but I've never called him a tough son-of-a-bitch. That's just never been my interpretation of Jack Conway. So I was going to say something.

Then, yesterday, I saw former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on the TV set talking about President Obama having "death panels" to deal with healthcare and I realized that it must be ok for Jack to call himself a tough son-of-a-bitch, even if most of us have never thought of him that way. At least he isn't plain fucking nuts like Governor Palin.

517. Who's afraid of a little rain?

We didn't have a little rain. We had six inches in seventy-five minutes, bringing massive flooding to nearly all parts of the city and county. I've been told southwest Jefferson was spared. West Louisville, Old Louisville, and downtown seemed to have been hit the hardest, but all parts were hit hard. The picture at left shows the height of the water on 4th Street at the Main Library. That's two bookmobiles mostly submerged, along with one car to the left completely submerged. The Library's lower level, housing tens of thousands of books, suffered great damage.

My damage was less. It was a loss of books, an antique chair which belonged to my grandmother's aunt, a table, and some incidental stuff sitting on the floor in the garage. Based on the water lines on the wall, the water there rose sixteen inches. In the cellar of the house, the damage was more severe, at least as far as cost. The water heater is messed up but fixable. The furnace is messed up and apparently not fixable. Down there the water apparently rose to thirty inches.

Then there was the attempted drive into work. As a habit, I drive in along Witherspoon Street, which is two block closer to the river, and thus downhill, than my street. But there are a few dips along N. Shelby Street along the way which in dry weather aren't really noticeable. I drove through one of them realizing about 1/3 the way through that my little low-lying Chevy Aveo probably wasn't designed for water-bogging. Emerging on the other side of that little dip it then dawned on me all the water was headed, along with me, downhill to Witherspoon Street. I got as close as I could, which is to say close enough to see Witherspoon Street had become Witherspoon River. I turned around and tried to go back the way I came. The water had risen and my access across "the little dip" was no more. I cut through the Allied Concrete company lot over to N. Campbell Street hoping to somehow go south instead of north. To no avail. I sat at the intersection of N. Campbell and Water streets for about forty-five minutes, watching the water rising all around, although I was perched on a slight rise and did not feel to be in danger.

The problem is I am very claustrophobic. While the interior of my Aveo is much larger than you might imagine from a little puddle-jumper of a car, there was to be no puddle-jumping today as the water on all sides continued to rise with me on an little island in the midst. In all my years of driving, I don't ever remembering panicking. I've driven in some odd and rough places, and more than a few tough places, but I've never panicked. I like to think I've never been lost, although my mother would argue that point due to a drive one day in northern Garrard County. Never lost, and never before scared. But I recognised that I was about to be so, scared, but not lost as I was sitting there within 500 feet of my home. I could see my towering Locust tree, the highest tree in Butchertown. But I could not have walked there if I wanted, and I wanted. I could feel the effects of claustrophobia.

I decided to drive down the sidewalk on the east side of Campbell, alongside an industrial building. The Aveo might be big-inside, but it is still a puddle-jumper, or in this case, not much wide than a little red wagon on the sidewalk. I made it along the building, coming down off the curb onto Geiger Street thus avoiding the panic that I came very close to not-thus-avoiding.

You always hear the warnings about not driving into rushing/running waters, as they are always deeper than you think. I now know exactly where, within 500 feet of my house, those waters can absolutely run deep.

516. Briefly . . . .

Very briefly:

The ennui has passed.

I've penned another entry but am having second thoughts about posting it.

Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" plays a part of the entry I've written but not posted.

I'm still for Jack Conway despite the abovementioned tune going through my head over and over.

I'm glad I didn't go to Fancy Farm; I might have said something.

Stay tuned.

Ennui

July seems to have been an awfully long month - and there are still three days to go. I know it isn't any longer than any previous Julys, saving of course the possibility that the Atomic Clock Commission in Colorado has added a second somewhere, something they do now and then since the earth is slowing down, but usually they do that between 11:59:59 pm on December 31 and 12:00:00 am on January 1.

For whatever reason a sense of ennui has set in both here on the blog and at home. I've been slowing down doing things like making entries and cleaning the house. Neither seems to be a priority. The disinterest is such that I've decided to forego by usual travel to the west this weekend, missing out on a bean soup dinner on Friday, evening parties along Kentucky Lake Friday night, a great breakfast at Mayfield High School on Saturday morning, and the best sit-down country dinner in the Commonwealth Saturday afternoon at the K of C in Fancy Farm, Kentucky.

Other than the summer of 2005 when I was seriously ill, I've been going to the Saint Jerome Picnic at Fancy Farm in Graves County for a long time. This year, alas, I won't find my way into the annals of Kentucky's largest outdoor political event, nor will I overindulge after the K of C dinner on mutton snadwiches, cokes, and ice cream. And I'll miss out on buying a Capital Prize chance as well as playing bingo for one of the prizes under the big central pavilion behind the old school building.

I'll just be glad when July ends and August commences.

My goal, starting let's say on August 4th, is to reverse the hazy and lazy days of July with a burst of activity once August actually arrives on the scene, notwithstanding that the Fancy Farm Picnic is in fact on August 1. Since I've not been a part of either of the Senate candidacies for next year - for the record I'm for Jack Conway - next year's mayoral race will begin its long ascendancy in August and that I will be a part of. One of the refrains I've heard over and over this summer has been "You can't not participate in a mayor's race." After all, we haven't had a mayoral primary since 1998 and the last real one before that was 1985. I participated in both of those. This one will soon get started.

Another plan I have during August is to begin fixing the house up to the point that I can "have people over" sometime later during the Christmas holidays. Of course, given that I do not cook, I'll have to acquire some prepared food from somewhere if in fact I do that. The house is an old foot-thick-brick walled New Orleans-style one-story shotgun built in the late 1880s. It needs lots of work. I'd like to paint the entire interior which will be a great task in itself. Some of the rooms have 13 feet tall walls while others are 14 feet tall. I'm not quite 5'8". And all of them are full of stuff - books, furniture, boxes, more books, and boxes of books. Books predominate. I'd also like to comparmentalize the remnants of other peoples' stuff that I manage to have - leftovers from friends and relatives coming to stay a night, a week, or, as in the case of my brother on more than one occasion, over a year. For once in my life I seem to have the room not only for my stuff but everyone else's - but there needs to be a thinning. I have the room not only in the house, but also in the cellar, and if not there in the oversized two-car garage in the back. So that is my project for the next few months - personal organization and reor, something I've put off for forty-eight years or so.

That's another issue. In September I will be 49, twelve short months from a half-century. I want to be prepared to start that second half-century with as much of a clean and manageable plate as possible. Since I tend to be a procratinator, starting now - thirteen months early - is probably a good thing. Ok, admittedly, I'm not starting til next week, three or four days into August.

Happy End of July.

514. Missing a friend

Shed a tear 'cause I'm missing you
I'm still alright to smile
I think about you every day now
Was a time when I wasn't sure
But you set my mind at ease
There is no doubt you're in my heart now

-- from Patience, by Guns 'n' Roses

Joseph Robert Spears
born December 13, 1973
died July 24, 1991

May his soul and the souls of all who have left from this life Rest In Peace.

513. Visions and Revisions

Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions
And for a hundred visions and revisions
Before the taking of a toast and tea.
-- lines from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, by T. Stearns Eliot, 1915

*****

Late yesterday afternoon and well into the evening, my friend Preston and I took to the backroads leading out of northeastern Jefferson County. Our first stop was the allegedly self-contained microcity of Norton Commons, a very interesting but much-too-perfect-and-refined development off KY1694 where the old WAVE3 Farm was when I was a kid. KY1694 is called Brownsboro Road, but it is not the Brownsboro Road most of us identify with Ballard High School and Holiday Manor while wondering which of KY22 and US42 is the actual Brownsboro Road, once one leaves the confining bounds of the Watterson Expressway. For the record, Brownsboro Road is called US42 inside the Watterson and KY22 outside the Watterson until one reaches KY1694, and the turnoff to Norton Commons. At that point, if one stays east on KY22, the roadname is Ballardsville Road.

Preston and I covered a number of subjects during our leisurely ride which took us to three different county seats, La Grange (of Oldham), New Castle (of Henry), and Bedford (of Trimble). The discussions included a reference by Preston to T. S. Eliot's 1922 poem The Waste Land, which I admitted to not having read. In return I quoted, rather, from his earlier poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which Preston then admitted he had not read. An even score.

As with all of our journeys, whether across town or across a handful of counties, politics was a subject oft discussed. Last night's discussion centered on the newly created race for mayor, newly created given that the current and longtime possessor of that office had earlier in the day announced he would not seek reelection, something a handful of people, including this writer, had been predicting for over a year.

What has happened since his announcement has been a summing up of the years, decades, even a generation of service granted by the mayor to the citizens of the old City of Louisville and the later Louisville-Jefferson County Metro governments. As if he had crossed over to another place, the Courier-Journal has ran dozens of pictures, several stories, and sidebars, print- and electronic media- space usually reserved for at-the-ready press when one does indeed cross over from this world to the next.

Similarly, the mayor's fellow politicians have been giving versions of accolades for all the things he has done (and a few things other people did). My good friend John Yarmuth, Kentucky's Third District Congressman, was in on the tidings. Another blogger thought all these good words of good deeds were too much, calling them "revisionist history." It isn't my intention in this entry to nod approvingly or join the naysayers in passing judgment. But an idea has crossed my mind.

I do not often like to play in the make-believe world of "what might have been." I've made decisions in my life which, if given the opportunity of revision, would most certainly have been revised, and perhaps revised yet again. But we do not get such opportunities, at least to my knowledge. But I would like to indulge the fantasy for a moment and engage in a game of what might have been.

This story begins with a failure of which I was a part. In 1998, I joined with Ken Herndon in supporting and helping to run then-3rd Ward Alderman Tom Owen's race for Mayor of Louisville. This was the old Louisville, not the current one. Tom's race was chaired and managed by Shannon Hensley. Our headquarters was on Bardstown Road in the Highlands, naturally. Many in our community thought the race quixotic. Many thought then and still do, most with a great sense of admiration, of now-Councilman Owen as something of our own Don Quixote, but considerably more effective as there are no windmills in the 8th Council District. I should add here that Tom is a friend of mine and I know him to be much more rooted in the real give-and-take of city life than his reputation allows. His City Hall office is directly across the hall from mine, and if he takes issue with anything I write here, I will hear about it very soon. But I digress.

As I said, the effort was a failure. But not one of grand proprotion. Tom's opponent in that race, in the Democratic Primary, which was all that mattered in the old City of Louisville, was David L. Armstrong, a former Jefferson County Prosecutor and County Judge, and Kentucky Attorney General. We were supposed to lose in a big way; we didn't. We lost by a small number, but it was a loss nonetheless. I, of course, thought we were going to win - I almost always think that of the candidates I'm for. And while we had forecasted in our campaign literature that a Mayor David Armstrong would be an East End elitist with no real concern for downtown or the Arts or housing or entertainment, nothing could have been further from the truth. As mayor from 1998-2002, Armstrong was the absolute strongest of advocates for all the concerns we had thought he wouldn't be. I was very pleasantly surprised and impressed by his term of office and his attitude to a broad scope of Louisville's citizens. I remember attending a "thank-you" concert for him at the Brown Theatre toward the end of his term, recognising all the good and great things he did for our beloved former City of Louisville. But, one thing he did wrong was support the move to merge the old City with Jefferson County.

And that's where tonight's entry on revisionist history comes in. What if?

What if Tom had won the 1998 Democratic Primary for mayor and then became mayor after the November election? I've never had this discussion with him although I have often thought about it. I do not know if he would have supported a proposed merger of the old City with the County had he been mayor at the time. My belief is he would not have - but that is strictly my belief. My belief is his would have been an administration affixed to the old City, addressing the concerns and needs that Mayor Armstrong did do, and not flirting with the wants, needs, dollars, and voters to be found in the county. Maybe I would be wrong, I do not know. This is all speculation. What if, though?

Let's assume for a moment that the Chief Executive of the old City had chose in 2000 to protect the interests of the old City by way of opposing merger with his bully pulpit. Would such a stance had been enough to defeat it? Merger had certainly been defeated in the past, at least twice in my voting lifetime, although I voted one way the first time then, like John Kerry, switched on the second. What if?

There are presently calls on blogs here and there to in someway undo the merger, to unmerge. Ironically, many of those calls are coming in from southwest Jefferson County which has undoubtedly benefitted from merger by way of having representation by people who actually live in the area. They are getting additional urban services without paying any additional Urban Services taxes. Before merger, southwest Jefferson was represented on the old Fiscal Court by someone who lived by Chickasaw Park in southwestern Louisville. That isn't to say that person's representation was bad - it wasn't - but it also wasn't closeby.

Undoing the merger vote would take legislative action in Frankfort [legislative action is an oxymoron lately] as well as a vote here in Louisville - I think. I'm not really sure and haven't closely studied Chapter 67C of the Kentucky Revised Statutes, the Bible for Louisville-Jefferson County Metro. The law that was written and passed allowing us to merge was well-written enough to make the undoing rather undoable. But again, What if?

Had merger failed, where would we be today? Specifically, about whom would Preston and I had been talking last night when speaking of the next mayor's race. It is true that all of the announced candidates are (to my knowledge) residents of the old City of Louisville. So they could all be running in that race as well as the current one. Let me note here that, conversely, there is no one currently running who could be identified as a "county" person, someone such as Irv Maze or David Stengel or Denise Harper Angel, all three of whom have roots in Okolona, a Democratic, if conservative, bastion of Democratic primary votes.

I guess my question is this - where would we be if not for Merger? I'm curious if any of my six faithful readers would care to address that question. The comments section is open for your ideas.

*****

For of all sad words of tongue or pen, The saddest are these: "It might have been!
-- John Greenleaf Whittier

Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

There are places I remember all my life,
Though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain.
All these places have their moments
Of lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I loved them all.
-- The Beatles


Most of us remember certain occasions. Where we were, who we were with, how we felt. When I was growing up, my grandmother talked about the 1937 flood as if it happened last Thursday. Of course it happened 23, almost 24 years, before I was born. Later generations speak of November 22, 1963 with a sense of deep reverence and true loss for our country at the assassination of a president. Others can tell you about the loss five years later of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. or that a few months later of Senator Bobby Kennedy.

My first memory of a national political event was when I was in 6th grade in the Spring of 1972. The wife of United States Senator George McGovern, who was then running for president, came to Louisville to speak to local Democratic women. The event was held in the New Gym of what would be my high school alma mater, Durrett. My grandmother, along with a few other women-politicos from southern Jefferson and northern Bullitt counties, were in attendance along with their children and grandchildren, of which I was one.

Another memory of mine is being taken to my high school principal's office to hear the results of my race for Student Government president. Teresa Stanton, Drew Chuppe, and I waited for Mr. Smith to announce the results. For the record I won. It was April, 1977. I remember the day I decided to quit UK and return home to Louisville. It was a bittersweet and ultimately incorrect decision. I was in the field between the South Commons Cafeteria and what was the north parking lot of Commonwealth Stadium, where my car was parked. Rick Lusardo and I were walking together through that field. He was a dear friend in those days. There is a tennis court there now.

I remember being in Frankfort in the Capital Plaza Hotel, there in front of the indoor waterfalls, standing with Aldermanic Clerk Linda C. Janes, lobbying for the City of Louisville, when the annoucement came down that Mr. Bingham planned to sell the C-J and dissolve the 5B companies here in Louisville. I believe it was January 9th, 1986. Just a few shorts weeks later on January 28th, and again with Linda Janes, we were driving back to Louisville and stopped at the McDonald's in Shelbyville on US60 at KY53. While there, we learned of the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster. We drove on back to Louisville in silence.

On a happier note, I remember being in the ballroom of the Galt House East when Bill Clinton's electoral college numbers passed the magic 270 mark; it was a middle western state, perhaps Minnesota or Montana. It began with an M. We partied well into the night, even though I had been a Jerry Brown supporter in the primaries. I was with a very special person in my life at that time, which made the win all that much more special. Clinton was the first (and presently the second-to-last) person I had ever voted for who was elected president.

I was in the Floyd County (Indiana) Recorder's Office doing a residential title search when the clerks' attention was drawn away from the desk to a TV. That was early the morning of September 11, 2001. I immediately left and went back to my office just in time to see the second place hit the second tower on the big-screen TV in the lobby of my then-employer, the J. Bruce Miller Law Group. I couldn't talk about that subject for nearly two years and it still haunts me.

People will argue that I couldn't possibly remember all the events of the night of John Yarmuth's first election as Congressman in 2006. I started drinking, something I rarely do, Old Forester Bourbon about 5:30 pm, a half hour before the polls had closed. I had been convinced since the rainy day of the Fairdale Parade in late September that John would win. Standing before our wall of information in headquarters, I told Jason Burke and Aaron Horner about 2:30 on Election Day that we would certainly win. They took off for a pleasure ride - I think a cigar and a drink. I had been assigned to the West End HQ for the day and as I made my way back, I took a circuitous course, stopping at several polling stations along the way to reassure myself my earlier beliefs were true. I remember that evening at the Seelbach Hotel on the 7th floor, about 6:35 p.m. verifying the numbers as Aaron, Jason, John, and I got into a quiet space away from the staff hotel room, being on the phone with Tom Barrow at the Baord of Elections, checking to see which were the sixteen precincts still outstanding and if, in my opinion, the votes in the those precincts could overcome the lead we knew we had. They couldn't and we began to change our community, our Commonwealth, and our country that night. Those few minutes were the most remarkable I've ever had in politics.

Finally, I can tell you about the night two years later, in the 3rd floor party room at the Waterfront Plaza Condos, where with many others I watched state after state, all across the country, change the nation and the world by electing Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States of America. It is best thing my country has done in my lifetime, perhaps.

These are the events I clearly recall: day, place, moment, and emotion. I began this entry with the mention of the 1937 flood, JFK, MLK, and RFK. Those things I do not remember. I was seven when Dr. King and Sen. Kennedy died in 1968.

My first clear memory of something I knew I would always remember happened forty years ago, July 20, 1969. I knew then, at eight years old, this was big. I still remember the scene clearly.

That Spring, in anticipation of bringing his World War Two buddies to Louisville for the bienniel reunion of the 114th Seabees, my grandfather's navy batallion, he had built a family room on the south end of our house as a place to entertain. My grandmother's living room was always a very formal place and she did not want his war buddies and their wives, girlfriends (or both) overeating, overdrinking, and generally having way too much fun in her crisp clean living room. It was the second addition to the house he had originally built in the 1950s for his wife and daughter, my mother. The plans had called for a basement but for whatever reason, probably economic, no basement was built. In 1965, my grandmother had requested a garage. My grandfather and his nephew built an oversized garage which included for him a workshop, and for her a space to house two cars, but has instead been the world's largest closet, or at least the biggest one in southern Jefferson County. In mid-1968, he added a redwoood deck across the driveway from the carport. Then, in early 1969, the carport was enclosed to make a family room, or den as they were popularly called.

It featured two built-in couches underwhich could be stored any number of things. God only knows what is under those couches as they haven't been checked in years. At the other end was a desk and bookshelves, also built-in, which housed among other things the new 1968 editions of the World Book Encyclopedia, the google-search of its day. There was a telephone jack and a small all-in-one TV, telephone, and a clock-radio attached, the absolute latest in technology. The room had something called indoor-outdoor carpeting which my grandfather allowed could be sprayed down with a hose and allowed to dry by way of a big cafteria style fan which he kept in the garage. Fortunately my grandmother never allowed him to test that theory. The room was decorated in an autumny orange and yellow decor, with all the woodwork painted chocolate brown. The cushions and pillows were of the same material as the curtains. In the middle of the room was a Library Table, whose legs had been shortened, which had been "liberated" from salvage when the old Manly Junior High School, at Brook and Oak, was abandoned. That old school is presently being restored as condos. By the door which led outside to the above-mentionred redwood deck was a little two-leaf table which my grandmother regularly reminded us had made it through the 1937 flood.

The room itself was set three steps below the kitchen. The wall between the two had been knocked out and a wrought-iron rail ran between the two rooms. There was also a lamp hanging from the ceiling made from the wheel of an old covered wagon - the interior hull gutted and replaced with electrical gadgetry. It was that lamp that caused a fire in the house on July 4, 1975. To get a taste of the decor, one today can visit the Fountain Room of the Galt House Hotel downtown. It is the only large space remaining of the Schneider propeties which hasn't been redecorated. The Galt House was built about the same time as the family room - and the decorating serves to prove such an idea.

Up against the 1/4-high wall by the kitchen, in the middle of that space, sat our big ol' TV, or TV set as they were then called. It was a brand new big-box thing, made by Philco-Ford, brown in color with gold trim, about 4' x 3' with a 3' foot depth and a set of rabbit ears on top. It was elevated off the floor by four screw-in legs which tapered from top-to-bottom. My grandmother was always irritated if we put our legs underneath the TV for fear of radiation. Strangely, I still have one of those tapered TV legs in the top drawer of my bedroom chest-of-drawers. I had not thought about that leg until I just now started describing the TV. The best thing about it - it was a color TV. That's what you called them then, a "color-TV." Not all shows were in color. You had to look in the TV listings or the TV guide for a little TV screen with a "C" to know which shows were offered, as the saying used to go, "in living color on NBC." Remember the chimes, "N-B-C, the full-color network."

It must have taken a lot to get us kids in from the outside in the middle of the afternoon and settled in front of the TV. That was my grandmother's work. But there we were, me and my brother, the Gutermuth kids from next door and Kesler's from across the street, and a handful of Priddy's and Peyton's from up and down the street. People all across the country and I suppose around the world were doing the exact same thing we were. It is well-recorded that President Nixon spent the day in front of a TV in the Oval Office.

And there in our family room in front of the Philco-Ford was where we all saw the lunar landing - Man on the Moon - to quote the late Walter Cronkite, "Wow!". And that's where we remained well into the night. I do not remember leaving - I'm sure we got fed, some went home, or to sleep. It was 6 1/2 hours from the landing of the lunar module to that historic moment when Neil Armstrong became the first man (that we know of) to step foot on the Moon.

Everyone remembers Armstrong's words, "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." According to those in the know, he actually said for a man but the "a" was lost to a glitch in transmission. What I clearly remember was six hours earlier, when he spoke the words "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Cronkite was right. Wow!

For all the malaise of the 1960s, at the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, America had done this one up right and ahead of schedule. It was a very good feeling. I hope to have it again someday.



*****

Rest In Peace, Walter Cronkite, 1916 - 2009.

511. The Globe Players

A friend and I have just returned from Louisville's Central Park where a performance of Hamlet has been presented by The Globe Players, the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival's acting troupe of middle and high school thespians. It was a great performance. The play runs through the 19th, which will close out this summer's performances of Free Will in Central Park. The play was directed by Matt Wallace. Matt has been a regular presence in the summer fare for almost a decade.

This evening, and throughout this run of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, the lead was played by Patrick Zakem, who will be a junior at YPAS this fall. He was an outstanding Hamlet. From start to finish, he demonstrated an ability in the role far advanced of his young age. Excellent.

The presentation of King Hamlet's ghost, especially early in the play, was chilling. Despite the 80 degree temperature, the presence of the ghost placed one as if in the middle of October of a cool windy night. Cheers to the scenery and lighting people for taking us deep into the netherworld. The later appearance in Gertrude's bedroom did not have the same cold effect, but was also worthy. The King's ghost was fittingly played by the same character who played King Claudius, Collin Sage, who will be a student at Georgetown, the college not the univsersity, this fall.

Queen Gertrude was very ably performed by Christine Sauer, a senior to be at Presentation Academy, just a few blocks up 4th Street from the stage. The bedroom scene was stunning. The role of Gertrude is that, for the most part, of an obedient wife; earlier this summer we saw Macbeth, where the wife is the lead, with the title role actually going to a second fiddle of a character.

A Saint Xavier grad, Ryan Burch, played Laertes, Hamlet's friend and foe, even unto the end of the play. I've never really liked the character of Laertes, whose deathbed conversion is like so many we see and hear about as one knows their time of crossing over is close at hand. Laertes' father, Polonius, was played by Collin Jones, a recent grad of Providence HS in Clarksville. I could easily see him as Falstaff or Henry VIII in some future production.

I have two or three favorite characters in all of Shakespeare, one of which is the very loyal Horatio, always described, simply, as Friend to Hamlet. Tonight's Horatio was Mitchell Martin, a graduate of the Brown School who will be attending Northern Illinois University this fall. Horatio is the type of friend we all wish we had, and if you are lucky enough to have a Horatio, treat him or her well. If we all had Horatio's in our lives, life would be all the more worthwhile. Young Mr. Martin was an excellent portrayer of this role. As with charcaters, I also have a few favorite scenes. I've written before on the blog of the graveyard scene, with the grave diggers, Hamlet, and Horatio. Most of us can quote Hamlet's line, holding the skull before his face, "Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy."

Several scenes were eliminated. I always enjoy the banter between Osric, Hamlet, and Horatio, which was missing from this performance. As too was King Claudius' reading of the letter sent by Hamlet from England, not-so-subtly informing the king that Hamlet yet lived. As is typical, all those scenes involving Fortinbras, cousin to Hamlet, which are woven in and out throughout the play, and in the script is actually the closing scene, were eliminated from this version. As such, the play ended where many people think it should have anyway, with Horatio's famous words: "Now cracks a noble heart. Good night sweet prince: And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!"

It was a very pleasant way to spend the evening.

And now, to sleep. To sleep, perchance to dream . . . . .

510. Poorer, Blacker, Older - and unrepresented

There is a lot of hullaballoo going on here and there over comments made by His Honor the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro, calling the former City of Louisville, which I sorely miss and of which I often write, "poorer, blacker, and older" in the days leading up to the Merger vote. I've heard the mayor use the phrase a number of times, including almost a decade ago as he, Jefferson County Judge/Executive Judge Rebecca Jackson, the C-J, Senator Mitch McConnell, and others hoodwinked the voters into voting for merger with promises of smoother, cheaper, and more effecient government, none of which has yet happened.

When the mayor has used the phrase it has never upset me in the way that it seems to have presently upset any number of people on various sides of different demographic and political aisles. In defense of the mayor (words you rarely have ever seen me write), he very simply and succinctly told the truth as it existed in 1999 and 2000, leading up to that fateful day in November of the latter when Jefferson County's voters by a majority vote ended what was, at least for residents and taxpayers of the old City, now called the Urban Services District, a pretty-good gig.

The days of a friendly Democratically-controlled Board of Aldermen for the 230,000 or so residents of the former City, the only government entity which "went away" by the merger vote, came to an abrupt end on January 3, 2003, with the election and swearing-in of a twenty-six member Metro County Council, eleven of which were Republican. [As a note, I went to work for one member of the Council, the first new Democrat elected (meaning there is now one less Republican) since the commencement of the new government, on January 2nd of the this year].

What I see no one writing about in this debate are two things. First, acknowedgment that the days of white-flight, exascerbated as one writer indicated on another blog by the Federal Judge James F. Gordon's 1975 ruling desegregating the recently merged Louisville Independent Schools and Jefferson County Public Schools, are basically over at least in downtown Louisville. I am sure when the 2010 census data are released, there will be a larger number of whites in the 4th Council district, which is centered on downtown. Not only will that district be whiter, it will also be much younger, and considerably less poor, all contrasts to the district (and the old City) as it existed a decade ago. That will make drawing a majority-voting African-American 4th council district rather difficult.

But, back to the bussing discussion. For those of you who weren't around, it was a very turbulent time in our community. I was starting 10th grade that September, and was bussed from my home school (Southern, which had bussing) to my AP school (Durrett, which was exempt excepting the AP students) and then to my deseg school (Manual, which was also exempt excepting AP students) every morning with the order reversed every afternoon. It was a ridiculous arrangement which came to an end later in October, when the school system moved me (and a few other AP students) back to Durrett, which was exempt because its attendance boundary was gerrymandered to take in a great deal of the African-American community of Newburg, including students who lived on Ilex Avenue, whose backyards abutted the property of Thomas Jefferson High School, now one district over. Durrett and Thomas Jefferson have since closed; Durrett now houses Louisville Male High School, which has a county-wide attendance district, and Thomas Jefferson now houses a middle school, shown at left and also called Thomas Jefferson. Directly behind this school's back fence were students who lived in Durrett's district.

Here is the history of the times:

On February 28, 1975, the Kentucky Board of Education ordered the merger of the Louisville and Jefferson County school systems effective April 1, 1975. On April 21, 1975, the United States Supreme Court denied appeals to reverse a Sixth Circuit Court order, and on July 17, 1975, a final order to U.S. District Judge James F. Gordon stipulated that a desegregation plan would be implemented at the beginning of the 1975–76 school year, which began on September 4, 1975. Ernest C. Grayson, former Jefferson County public school district deputy superintendent, became the first superintendent of the merged districts.

In 1978 Judge Gordon ended the court's active supervision of the desegregation plan. However, the order was never fully lifted. The Jefferson County public school district continued mandatory busing but changed its racial guidelines. In 1984 the desegregation plan for middle and high schools was changed to a system of zones and satellite areas. Mandatory busing was replaced in 1992 by a program designed to integrate elementary schools by giving parents a choice of schools. Racial guidelines were altered with each of the above plans. In 1996 the district approved a new integration plan requiring that all schools maintain racial guidelines of between 15 and 50 percent African American. Six black parents sued in 1998 to eliminate the student assignment plan based on race that limits the number of African Americans who can enroll in Central High School to a maximum of 50 percent.

All of that italicised language above is lifted from the Jefferson County Public Schools archives. But the truth is that white-flight took off in the County outside the old City in a big way the summer of 1975 and continued well into the 1980s and 1990s, at which point it subsided. However, it had already begun in the old City long before that. People a generation older than me speak of a day when the West End, specifically the area just east of Shawnee Park, was all white west of the 31st Street railroad. Indeed, as a sign to indicate they lived on different streets than those east of 31st, all the street-names changed when crossing under the K&IT (now Norfolk Southern) Railroad bridge. Cedar became Herman, Walnut (which is now called Muhammad Ali) became Michigan (which is also now called Muhammad Ali), Madison became Vermont, Chestnut became River Park, and Magazine became Del Park. Main, Market, Jefferson, and Broadway did not change names. So it is correct to say that white-flight began in the old City in the 1960s or even earlier, and that it continued into later decades. It is also correct to say bussing generated even more white-flight from the County outside the old City beginning in 1975. That flight became evident in the censusses [censae?] of 1980, 1990, and 2000, in Bullitt, then Oldham, and more recently Spencer counties. Spencer's number lagged the others as there were no good roads from Jefferson into this neighboring county, and to this day, there is only one, KY155. But even it is dangerous, and still a narrow two-lane passageway, in most of Jefferson County. It opens up to a wide roadway with emergency lanes and broad shoulders south of Fisherville in Jefferson County, and remains so all the way to the Spencer County seat, Taylorsville.

The second thing I see no one discussing in the ongoing debate is the disparate taxing authorities which remain after merger, where we went from having one County government, about a dozen fire protection districts, and ninety-five municipal corporations (all with locally elected representation); to having one County government, about a dozen fire protection districts, and ninety-four municipal corporations (all with locally elected representation). The only local government that "went out of business" with merger, and along with it the locally elected representation of the Board of Aldermen), was the old City of Louisville. The one thing that didn't end was the old City's taxing district. Voters and property taxpayers in the old City today (and since merger) have no locally elected representation, unlike all the other municipal corporations in the County (which have city mayors, and commissions or councils), as well as the County itself (which has a mayor and Metro Council). As you will read on the license plates in our nation's capital, that is called Taxation without Representation, something we thought came to an end back in the 1780s after a war with England. Not so. Such a system remains for those living in the old City of Louisville. That should be a point of discussion, notwithstanding that a number of those people, though not as many today as in 2000, are poorer, blacker, and older, than their well-represented counterparts who reside outside the Urban Services District.

When will these disparate tax systems be merged?

509. And the connection is what ?

You never know when a conversation is going to take an odd turn. A semi-regular Friday night habit is joining friends for food, conversation, and - importantly - half priced bottles of wine at Carly Rae's, a sprawling eating and drinking establishment in Old Louisville on the northwest corner of Oak and First streets.

Of these two regular friends for the occasion are first one who is just slightly older, a Fine Arts graduate from Murray State University and employed as the executive director of a quasi-governmental agency charged with a number of duties all related to the promotion of downtown Louisville. My other companion is considerably younger, African-American, and a graduate of some small college in the South followed by a prestigious law degree from Vanderbilt. He is a high-priced corporate attorney who I am confident is worth every penny he makes.

Our conversations typically center on politics - imagine that. While all three of us are Democrats, we represent different places on the spectrum, the executive director and I occupying varying roles left of center of the Party, and the attorney filling a libertarian, corporate and, shall we say, rather conservative slot to the right. As I said before, our Party is housed under a big tent.

Tonight's conversation was rolling along after several glasses of a Lindeman's Pinot Noir of 2008 vintage, along with, at least for me, a plate of Town-and-Country crackers slathered in old-style beer cheese. We had talked about the governor's race as well as his accent. We touched on Richie Farmer and Trey Grayson. There were comments on the Louisville mayor's race in 2010, whether or not this July 20th or 21st's widely expected announcement would bring on a cavalry charge of candidates, to use the words of our mayor in an interview last week on WFPL's State of Affairs radio program, should he decide not to run again, one which, in my opinion, would in all likelihood be won by a sitting councilmember who is already assembling a stellar group of supporters and staffers; or if only Tyler Allen would be competition for His Honor the Mayor of Louisville-Jefferson County Metro, something Allen indicated in a recent LEO article.

At some point, referencing back to the governor's accent, which I attributed to his hometown of Dawson Springs, a town I've been through on several occasion where the Beshear name is readily applied to a number of businesses and even the nearby state park lake, our discussion turned to western Kentucky and even far western Kentucky, where at length we spoke of how that land, west of the Tennessee River, came to be purchased by Andrew Jackson in 1818, hence the name The Jackson Purchase.


If you do not know the story, there was always a problem with Kentucky's (and Tennesse's) claim to this land, shown at least in Kentucky at right in the picture, which was home to and controlled by the Chickasaw tribe. After many attempts, negotiations between the tribe and the United States arrived at an agreement. The negotiators for the United States were Andrew Jackson, who would in two years become president, and Isaac Shelby, who earlier served as both the first and fifth governor of the Commonwealth. The land itself covered the territory east of the Mississippi River, south and west of the Tennessee River, and north of the the state of Mississippi, commonly known in Kentucky as the Jackson Purchase and in Tennessee as West Tennessee. Agreed to in 1818, it became law when the Treaty of Tuscaloosa was signed into law by President James Monroe on January 7, 1819.

So there we were discussing the Jackson Purchase when my one friend, the older one, responding to a comment by the other one, said, "Oh, that's like Michael Jackson."

Michael Jackson, really? WTF. We were a little dumbfounded as there was no real segue between the two, really none at all. We both allowed the third to make that connection, wild as it was, after which the conversation left the confines of Jackson's Purchase and turned to the life and times and untimely death of the singer all three of us seemed to like.

The question for my six faithful readers is what is the connection between The Jackson Purchase and Michael Jackson, other than the common surname involved, which had nothing to do with tonight's discussion. Until tonight I could not have dreamt of any. But, at least in the mind of my one friend, there is. If you have an idea, leave a comment. There are no prises for getting it right, just the idea that such a connection could be made.